The History of the American Nation

[Little Corporal]

Introduction
5 years ago, on the eve of the inaugration of the first President of the new united world government, the American nation was officially abolished; its last president, Lee Harcourt, resigned his office; and the Presidential Palace ceased to function as the home of an executive and became a historical site.

And yet, despite America's disappearance, its presence is still evident. It can still be seen in the world economy, which revolves around the banks of Washington. It can be seen in the world population, which overwhelming speaks English as a first or second language. And it can be seen in the world government, which is based on, and nearly identical to, America's previous government. America was an innovator in all fields, but its most lasting impact came in the area of political thought.

But America was not always a paragon of democratic virtue. It began, like all nations, when a small band of prehistoric humans appointed one of their own as king....

 

[Little Corporal]

Pre-Republican Era
American civilization began on the fertile banks of the Potomac River. Teeming with cattle, and bounded by thick woods filled with valuable animals that could be trapped and made into furs, the upper Potomac was an ideal place for human habitation. Archaeological evidence indicates that the first permanent settlement at the site of modern Washington occured around 4000 BCE. The city expanded quickly, as shown by this primitive etching found on a stone tablet that dates back to approximately 2600 BCE (The written English language was still developing at this point, and most scribes and artists signed their works with an X carved into the upper-right hand corner of a tablet)

The abundant food supply and nearby fresh water caused the population to expand quickly. The city became overcrowded, and thousands of settlers from a neighborhood on the eastern side of the city known as York .left the city. They established a new community, New York, at the mouth of the Potomac, next to the southernmost of the Appalachian peaks, Mount Davis. This pattern of settlement, growth, and departure due to overcrowding continued for centuries. The cities formed a loose confederation of city states, contributing troops to a shared army but otherwise remaining highly independent of one another. By 850 BCE, 11 seperate states had emerged, each consisting of several cities dominated by a more powerful one. This map from the period, though highly decayed, does show each of the major cities.

The most powerful states at this time were the cities of the eastern grasslands, Washington, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, as well as Rhode Island, which lay on the border of the southern tundra. New Jersey was a minor city on the eastern edge of the eastern grassland, and Maine and Conneticut were small cities on the southern frontier. Virginia had been recently established, and was a tiny mining community nestled deep in the Appalachians, near a massive iron deposit. The Great Plains region had begun to be settled at this time, but the states of Texas, Michigan, Georgia, and Washington at this time were little more than collections of farming villages.

Coincedentally, the map to which I previously referred was made in one of the most auspicious years of American history: for in this year, 850 BCE, a revolution would sweep through the cities of America and forever alter the course of history.

 

[Tasslehoff]

Looks good so far- I love the edited maps for effect! Keep it up

 

[Lexicus]

Whoa. Terrible Image quality. I like where this is going, though.

 

[Little Corporal]

The image quality is a photoshop filter- I wanted it to look bad, it's a millenia-old document on some sort of paper. I was going for a Last Supper kind of appearance.

 

[Little Corporal]

Here's all the boring game-related info:
Huge Continents, 80% water, 4 million year old earth.
Regent.
I use Warpstorm's Watercolor Terrain.
All the image effects I do in Photoshop (The vast majority of all images will be edited in some way)

 

[Quintillus]

Excellent start. I like the altered images and starting with the current story, then retracing. Good writing thus far as well. I'll take a guess that you're targeting Democracy and later a Diplomatic victory.

I do hope the image quality improves slightly over time - at least by the Middle Ages there might be some rather clear ones?